Marbacka

Selma Lagerlof grew up at Marbacka and the family lost it when she was in her thirties; she bought the farm back in 1907 and rebuilt the main house in the 1920s with the money from her books and the Nobel Prize she won in 1909, the first woman to take the literature prize. She lived and wrote here until her death in 1940 and left instructions that nothing be changed, so the house is shown as she had it: her study with the desk, the library, the furniture and the objects in place. The estate is still farmed. Guided tours run through the summer, and the Fryken lakes and the landscape of Gosta Berling are around it.

What you actually see

• The house as she left it - unchanged by her own instruction.
• Her study and library - where the later books were written.
• A farm bought back with book money - and Nobel Prize money.
• The Fryken valley around - the setting of her fiction.

When to go

May to September, when tours run. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The house is by guided tour only and tours are mostly in Swedish. The season is short. It means more if you have read her. A car is needed.

Nearby

Sunne is north; Rottneros park is on the lake.